MY STORY WITH ALZHEIMER'S

Friday, October 16, 2015

alzheimers news-reflection

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-REFLECTION
thats what ive been doing the last few days
reflection
it happens every year as this time
when i have my annual neurology appointment

i try to look back to where i was at one year ago
and
try to see where im at
am i better
am i worse

i must say
i feel im better
my memory doesnt seem to have worsened

i seem to be in good physical health
heck i walked right up that enchanted rock a few
weeks ago without getting short winded at all
i can work all day with younger folks doing the
landscaping at habitat
i do lots of manual labor around here
so im ok physically
then

i seem to be doing ok
i dont feel depressed
im not stressed out
while we do need a little rain around here
maybe thats coming next week
i dont feel too sad about things
but
writing the blog about my younger brother
and
alzheimers this week did bother me some
but
overall all im doing ok

for this appointment
i plan to try to get into a new treatment study
hopefully one using one of the alzheimers vaccines

if i dont get the placebo and if it works then i will have
gained 2-3 years of treatment
a 50/50 chance of getting the treatment
odds ill take
since the odds of no treatment would be 0%

then if the study shows it will be effective
i will jump onto the treatment wagon when its commercially available

in fact we are planning on it being available in our near future
choosing our drug plans and our future financial
planning
knowing that it will cost $20,000 a year
hopefully we will have to pay only a percentage of that

in preliminary studies on a small number of
folks with mild memory loss
they not only got better as measured by improved memory
but
they also had less bad beta amyloid accumulation in the brain
that red stuff on the scan below

that is if it works
so the next few months will be hopeful ones

these treatment studies are important
since
if they work
my siblings my sons my nephews my nieces my cousins
may be able to be evaluated earlier in life
and
be able to begin treatment years before symptoms occur
so
this is why its so important
its very personal

then
if i enter the study i will finally have the
amyvid pet scan
for alzheimers where i will be able to get the results
it measures the bad beta amyloid in the brain
that red stuff in the above scan

if its positive
its the final test that solidifies my diagnosis
well as well as can be done without a brain autopsy
when this is all over with

or
if i dont get into the treatment study
i plan to pay for the amyvid pet scan myself
as
i want a final answer
so we can definitely plan our future days

then on saturday
we will do the little rock
walk to end alzheimers
on my younger brothers team#joe nash

so the next two days will be all about
alzheimers disease
and
how to stop it